Cronut-Crazy at Wildflour Cafe + Bakery, Fort Bonifacio

Everyone’s been talking about Cronuts these past few months, and it seems that I’m the only one who’s got left behind in the trend! So last Saturday, when four other blogger friends decided to go have some cronuts after one of our food events, I decided it’s finally time I have a try of what these cronuts really are.

Originating from New York City as conceptualized by Dominique Ansel from the Domnique Ansel Bakery, this pastry is described as “Half-donut, half-croissant”. Eventually, other bakeshops have been coming out with their own version. In the Philippines, it is said that Wildflour Bakery in Bonifacio Global City, was locally the first to pick up on the trend. Krispy Kreme, Le Couer De France, and Dolce Latte, are other bakeshops, to name a few, who are now offering the famous cronuts on the market.

What better way to try out cronuts than start with the original? In Manila, at least.

Thinking that it’s located just on the Fort Strip, we decided to go walk to the place from Bonifacio High Street thinking that it would just a couple of blocks away. Turns out, it was at 4th Ave corner 26th Street, just behind Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf on 5th Ave. It was a twenty-minute walk in what felt like our journey for the magical cronuts. Boy, these cronuts better be worth it!

We finally got to Wilflour Cafe + Bakery at 3:30PM, and it was packed with people! We couldn’t get a table for our group of five, and the attendants were not very helpful at all. There were empty tables, but according to them, were already reserved, that’s why they won’t allow us to seat there. Since most of us had to go to another appointment at four in the afternoon, we entertained the idea of taking out our orders of cronuts. And when we finally did decide to have them for takeout, we were told that there were none yet available, and that we should wait for the last batch, which will be available anytime from 3:30-4PM. This was when we learned that these famous cronuts were served in four to five batches per day, and after 4 PM or if you’re really unlucky, there’s no more cronuts for you.

The Wildflour Cafe + Bakery Menu

We finally got a small table for five, and decided to skim through the menu. The menu did not have cronuts! Why? For a bakery which is famous for cronuts, it did not include it on the menu. We asked for the prices and flavors and we were given this:

Cronut Flavors from Wildflour Cafe + Bakery

So there were eight flavors: three premium (Dulce de Leche, Hazelnut, Tiramisu) and five regular flavors (Chocolate, Vanilla, Mixed Berries, Strawberry, and Plain). These five bloggers wanted to at least get one cronut for themselves. And that’s when we were informed of another rule: Only two cronuts can be sold per table or group. They say that they only make a limited number of cronuts because it’s very difficult to make. This surprises me, though. If a business thinks that there is great demand for a certain product, wouldn’t you want to make the most money out of it? Would you not want to offer it all throughout the day so that you get to earn more from it? Or maybe they want to limit the supply so that they can charge more, since the demand for the items is high. Just basic Law of Supply and Demand. Plus, it helps hype up the whole stuff.

Wildflour Cafe + Bakery Operating Hours

Let’s not get into the economy of the prices and the products and let’s start judging the product based on the taste.

Complimentary loaf of bread and salted butter

Mixed Berries (Php 120)

Despite most of my bloggers friends declaring that this is their least favorite cronut flavor among the five that we tried, I found this delicious, despite being a bit too sweet. You probably would want to eat only half of this before you get tired of just how sweet it is.

Tiramisu (Php 150)

This flavor really did not stand out for me, so I couldn’t describe how it tastes anymore. After eating five, super-sweet cronuts, the taste of this cronut was pushed at the back of my mind.

Chocolate (Php 120)

I liked the Chocolate Cronut very much. I’m a bit partial to chocolate, but this wasn’t too sweet for me.

Hazelnut (Php 150)

Much like the chocolate cronut bit with a nuttier taste and with pieces of nuts on the topping, the Hazelnut is another good cronut flavor to try.

Dulce de Leche (Php 150)

The Dulce de Leche donut has got to be my favorite, since it tastes much like caramel. It was sweet, much like all the other cronuts, but was just the right kind of sweetness to complement the croissant.

Five food bloggers’ first time to try out Wildflour Cronuts

We were told by Sir Noel Cruz, the Manager of Wildflour Cafe + Bakery, BGC, that the inside filling of the cronut was the same as the topping. Sugar rush! He also told us that they dish out around 600 cronuts a day.

Here are some other guidelines to help you in buying your batch of cronuts:

Due to the long lines for our croissant-doughnuts, Wildflour has to ration the pastries based on the length of the line.

Wildflour has an allocated number of croissant-doughnuts for phone orders:

Pre-orders should be done at least a day before by calling the Wildflour branch nearest you.

If croissant-doughnuts are still available, a representative will assign a window of time for when the croissant-doughnuts will be available.

For unpaid pre-orders, a 30-minute time allotment will be given for pick-up. Beyond that, the pre-ordered croissant-doughnuts may be sold to other customers.

Customers who opt not to pay for their pre-orders will be allotted a maximum of six croissant-doughnuts. For greater quantities, full payment is required.

Paid orders not picked up on the same day will not be refunded unless we are advised before pick-up time.

Payments should be made to the nearest branch. There are currently no other payment modes available.

Hoping that they entertain bank deposit payments in the future.

Finished five plates of cronuts! Thanks to Roch for the photo :)

What I really liked about the cronuts was the crispy, flaky croissant, that takes a lot of time and patience to make. Judging from the pictures of cronuts from other bakeries, Wildflour’s looked the crispiest and the flakiest. Although I’m not a big fan of croissants because of the flakes falling off, making it difficult to eat, I enjoyed my first cronut experience with Wildflour. The delicious fillings make it worth the effort. What I did not appreciate though, was the price, and why there were only limited supply of the cronuts. I’m looking forward to trying our cronuts from other bakeries as well!-HANA